Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sabrinak]

Hello,


Could you tell me which one is the correct way of saying?


1. Tomatoes are a fruit.
2. Tomatoes are fruit.
3. Tomatoes are fruits.


It's so confusing. I'm looking forward to your clear answer.


Thank you so much.

[dragn]

We would normally say "Tomatoes are a fruit," meaning they are one certain type of fruit. This sentence would not normally be used to refer to some group of tomatoes and mean that each and every one of them is "a fruit." This sentence means that all tomatoes collectively are one specific type of fruit. Other fruits would be bananas, apples, oranges, etc.

Here's another way to think of this:

Let's say that on one table there is a tomato, a banana, and an orange. I pick up the tomato and say:

"This is a tomato. It is a fruit."

Then I pick up the banana and say:

"This is banana. It is another fruit."

Finally, I pick up the orange and say:

"This is an orange. It is another fruit."

Now, on another table are three tomatoes. I pick up one of them and say:

"This is a tomato. It is a fruit."

Then I pick the second tomato and say:

"This is another tomato. It's not another fruit; it's the same fruit as the first tomato."

I pick up the third and say:

"This is another tomato. It's not another fruit, either. It's the same fruit as the first two tomatoes."

I hope this helps, because I know this stuff is confusing.

Greg

[redset]

Just to pick up on sometihng Greg said, we'd usually say fruits to make it clear we're talking about several types of fruit.

'We bought some fruit' - possibly one type, possibly several kinds
'We bought some fruits' - we bought a number of different types of fruit

I think usually fruits would refer to whole fruit too (i.e. it's a count noun), whereas fruit can be uncountable:

I ate some fruit - maybe half a banana, or a whole bunch! (Nobody start the 'banana is not a fruit thing'!)

It's fairly unusual to hear fruits used though - I think it mostly shows up in the phrase 'fruits and vegetables'.